Polishing machine for finished shoe soles

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a polishing machine for finished shoe soles. It comprises: an intermittently rotating dial-arranged support, each spoke of which comprising a pair of uprights carrying a footwear; a pair of rotating brushes lowering at each angular rotation, the upstream brush being the abrading brush and the downstream brush being the polishing brush; a rotary motion of the brushes in opposition to the shoe feeding on the first longitudinal half thereof and a reverse in rotation of the brushes on the second longitudinal half thereof; two mechanisms carrying said brushes and having means for simultaneous rotation and oscillation thereof; a device for intermittently radially moving said dialarranged support and blocking it at position; two identical mechanisms for distributing abrasive material on the first brush and polishing material on the second brush. The purpose of the invention, is that of automating the operations of the machines for manufacturing shoes.

Pisaroni 51 June 25, 1974 1 1 POLISHING MACHINE FOR FINISHED SHOE SOLES [76] Inventor: Giuseppe Pisaroni, Cascine Olona di Settimo, Milan, Italy [22] Filed: June 23, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 265,479

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data July 2, 1971 Italy 26590/71 [52] US. Cl. 51/5, 51/215 AR, 51/216 ND, 51/263 [51] Int. Cl B24b 47/20 [58] Field of Search... 51/5, 215 R, 215 AR, 216 T, 51/216 ND, 216 1'1, 263,108 R; 12/77, 77.5,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 42,629 5/1864 Thompson 51/5 2,371,301 3/1945 LaChapelle 51/108 R UX 2,639,742 5/1953 Constantine 51/108 R 3,066,331 12/1962 Skelton 51/5 X Primary Examiner-Donald G. Kelly Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Krafft & Wells 5 7 ABSTRACT Disclosed is a polishing machine for finished shoe soles. It comprises: an intermittently rotating dialarranged support, each spoke of which comprising a pair of uprights carrying a footwear; a pair of rotating brushes lowering at each angular rotation, the upstream brush being the abrading brush and the downstream brush being the polishing brush; a rotary motion of the brushes in opposition to the shoe feeding on the first longitudinal half thereof and a reverse in rotation of the brushes on the second longitudinal half thereof; two mechanisms carrying said brushes and having means for simultaneous rotation and oscillation thereof; a device for intermittently radially moving said dial-arranged support and blocking it at position; two identical mechanisms for distributing abrasive material on the first brush and polishing material on the second brush. The purpose of the invention, is that of automating the operations of the machines for manufacturing shoes.

7 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTH] JUNZ 51974 POLISHING MACHINE FOR FINISHED SHOE SOLES At the termination of the manufacture of massproduced footwear the sole of each shoe is painted by means of a brush with a hiding dye; When the dye is dried, streaks due to the brush bristles will remain on the colored surface. Moreover, the coloring is dull. For an aesthetically faultless appearance of the footwear, the sole is polished by smoothing with rotating brushes and polishing brushes. A worker presents a sole, which is soaked with an abrasive paste, against the smoothing brush, first in one direction and then, by turning the footwear over, in the opposite direction so that the brush rotation is always from the longitudinal axis of the sole to the peripheral contour, to maintain intact the lower perimetrical edge of the sole. By this operation the surface is smoothed, removing said streaks and any unevennesses. Polishing is accomplished by a second pass against a second brush soaked with a polishing material, such as wax, paraffin and the like, in the same manner as for smoothing.

Although recognizing that these operations would not require skilled labor, however they should be carefully carried out. They require a substantial consumption of energy and are demanding because of the -amount of dust spreading about the operator, even if local suction means are provided.

The sequence of these manual operations has been particularly described in detail in order to be able to realize above all the human, as well as practical and technical advantages of machine taking the place of a man. Additionally, the application shows that the operational features of a machine would exactly repeat the above described manual operations; moreover, such operations would become regular as to sequence and results, as well as faster, while fatigue and dust trouble for the operator is avoided.

The polishing machine according to the invention comprises a dial-arranged support, wherein each radial support is adapted to hold a shoe passing first under a rotating brush for smoothing, then under a second brush for sole polishing. A station is contemplated where the apparatus stops for a fraction of a second in order to remove a finished shoe and to replace it with another shoe to be processed. During this halt, the two brushes remain at a lifted condition relative to the operative position and radially offset with respect to the radial supports. The dial-arranged support intermittently rotates. At each angular rotation, the shoe is processed first by the smoothing brush and then by the polishing brush. On the front half of the sole, the two brushes rotate in a clockwise direction as the sole is fed in a counterclockwise direction. When the sole reaches the coincidence of the two radial planes, shoe support and brush radius, the brush reverses the direction of rotation and terminates the operation by rotating in the same direction as the support. By this expedient it is avoided that both at the beginning and the end of the operation, the brushes meet the peripheral edge of the sole, leaving the same unaltered and intact. In other words, the expedient of reversing the rotation of the brushes resolves the need to manually carry out a polishing operation on both brushes.

The feeding rate of the shoe-holder wheel can be varied depending on the processing, requirements of processing and how fast a worker can substitute the finished shoe with one to be worked. Preferably, the unloading and loading station will be selected close to the spot for feeding the pieces to be processed and removing the finished pieces at the same time.

Particularly, the dial-arranged support has a plurality of spokes in pairs (heel and toe) and is driven by the stem of a cylinder causing it to intermittently advance, at the same time operating the electrical controls for rotating and oscillating said brushes, reversing the motion thereof and resetting the same to lifted position, because of being mounted on a rocking lever device, the motor for rotation thereof being also mounted thereon.

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description, wherein reference will be made to the appended drawings showing an embodiment of the invention, as given by way of not limiting example, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view showing the machine at inoperative condition, the shielding elements having been removed;

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the two shoe supports comprising a heel upright and a toe upright shoe-holder support;

FIG. 3 shows the heel upright of FIG. 2 at a displaced position for a height or level change;

FIG. 4 is a front view of the toe upright of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a front view of the heel upright of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 shows the two positions for a shoe inlet (top figure portion) and outlet with respect to the brush at operative stage;

FIG. 7 is an elevational view showing the rear side of the machine; and

FIG. 8 is a view showing the device controlling the rotation and oscillation of a brush at lowering stage.

Particularly, referring to the front portion of the machine, the bearing casing essentially comprises a vertical wall 9 separating the front portion from the rear portion, two upper sheets being fast with said wall, a first sheet 10 being inclined and a second sheet 10 being also inclined relative to the first sheet 10, such sheets being also fast with end partitions 11 and 12, which are substantially equally spaced apart from the intermediate partition 13 and inwardly facing.

A fan 15 is provided at the machine base 14 for dust sucking through a conical grate 16. At the front, provision is also made for control panel 17, wax distributing means 18 attached on sheet 10 for brush 21, abrasive material distributing means 19 attached on sheet 10' for brush 22, a rotating block having radial supports 20 and a toggle control 23. Devices 18 and 19 could be also mounted within the casing sheet 10.

Brush 21 is carried by and made fast with a shaft 21' and brush 22 is carried by and made fast with a shaft 22, the rotation and oscillation drives of which will be described in the following. At predetermined periods, both of said brushes should be like for smoothing with the first brush and polishing with the second brush with such materials as wax or the like for polishing. Devices 18 and 19 serve this purpose and are similar to each other, these devices comprising: a substantially vertical pin 24 on which a rod 25 is resiliently attached and capable of being angularly moved by a fixed handle 25', at the front end clamping between jaws 26 a cake 27 of said smoothing or polishing materials which by moving said rod 25 are caused to rub against the brush cloths; wear of both cake 27 and brush periphery is controlled by a screw 28 passing through said rod 25 acting on a rocking lever 29, at the end of which carrying a pad 30 sliding onthe plane of sheets or 10. Arcuate slits are obviously provided for the passage of cakes 27 when moving, as well as two adjustable stroke limits defining the arc of movement.

The radial support comprises a shaft 20, on which two identical discs 31 are keyed and also made fast by a plurality of inner cross-pieces 32 10 in the drawing), which are equally spaced apart and each forming the support for the two uprights 33 and 34 therebetween holding a shoe S during the entire rotation. The heel upright 33 carries the heel by means of which is threaded a peg 35' in the last hole and is the end portion of a member 35 enclosed between the two plates 36 fast at the bottom with cross-piece 32 and capable of taking up several positions in height (four in the drawing) by causing a stud 37 projecting from the two portions to coincide in a pair of seatings 38 on the inner edge of said two plates. At the lower end said member 35 is pivoted to stem 39 of cylinder 40 which, when the shoe is resting with its toe said second upright 34, holds the shoe fixed in this position (FIG. 2). The toe upright 34 comprises a leather covered bearing bracket 41 which is fast with a cylindrical rod 42 entering the tubular member 43, fast at the bottom with an end member 44 pivoted at 45 to a fork 46 which in turn is made fast with said cross-piece 32 on the opposite side of upright 33.

Rod 42 is provided with cross cut seatings 47. On the same side on the tubular member 43, a notch 48 allows the passage for a nib 49 fast with a spring plate or sheet 50 to stop at a desired height or level said rod 42 on one of its seatings 47. The height or level change can be readily made by turning said bracket 41 until the nib is removed, moving it to the desired height, or level, and then moving it again to the correct position at which the nib block will be quite easily regulated. A second adjustment would be also required for upright 34 in connection with the shoe length, that is in the direction of arrows F. This positioning will be manually effected by the operator, and the position will be maintained owing to the insertion between member 44 and two forks 46 of two washers 46' of nylon or material having the same properties of friction, and tightening of nuts 45 with the interposition of a resilient washer clamping said friction. The above described height or level and position adjustements, as made practical and fast by the shown expedients, are elements defining a substantial rapidity, in carrying out said adjust-ments which, therefore, can be done without any breakdown in process-' ing.

nal, knee controlled drive and the machine operation will be restarted.

Intermittent rotation of block 20 is controlled by a rear disc 52 (FIG. 7) which is keyed on shaft 20and provided with as many notches 52' on its periphery as the pairs of front supports. On one notch it is blocked by a pneumatic stem 53 which with its engaging cylinder 53 is supported by the diametrical rocking lever 54 idly pivoted on the common shaft 20'. In turn, said engaging cylinder 53 is pivoted to the stem of a driving cylinder 55 which is substantially vertical and attached at the bottom to the bearing casing. Of course, the stroke imparted to stem 53 by driving cylinder 55 will be equivalent to the displacement for one station between one shoe and another, but, since said stem 53 releases atthe end of said displacement, the correct clampingpos'ition for said rocking block 20 is assured by blocking or changing cylinder 56 stationary with respect to disc 52, operating in synchronization with driving cylinder 55 and blocking said disc by inserting its rod in a notch 52. The rotational speed of disc 52 is controlable by a hydraulic system parallel coupled with driving cylinder 55. A pivoted rack rod 57 is pivoted to the opposite end of rocking lever 54 in order to rotating a pinion 58, the shaft of which passes through a box 59 and carries three differently shaped keyed cams operating three suitable microswitches for reversing the rotation of said brushes as the latter are lowered on the soles. These cams are rotated and oscillated by identical mechanisms, only one of which will be described, for example such as brush 21 and associated pin 21 which on the side of plate 9 is supported by an oscillating plate 60 which in turn is pivoted at 61 and oscillable shown at P in FIG. 1, a fixed cam will meet a push butthereon by control of a cylinder 62 coupled to a coaxial cylinder 63 acting as a brake and shock absorber. Thus, it is provided with a body 63 of resilient material and two side rods 64, on which the end of stroke position can be adjusted. The assembly of the two cylinders is supported at the top by a threaded rod 65 projecting from the covering plate 10 and passing through an articulated pin 66 of nylon or the like for causing some friction against the thread of rod 65 to prevent any rotation thereof as caused by the vibrations of the running machine. Thus, through an end handwheel, 65', the lowering of the brush is controlled by rod 65 to equalize the wear thereof.

On the opposite side of brush 21, said oscillating plate 60 also carries an oscillating board 67 which is pivoted at 67', a motor 68 being mounted thereon and having its pulley 69 rotably driving a pulley 70 keyed on pin 21 of brush 21 through a belt 71.

The above described device is shown in FIG. 7 at a lifted position, while in FIG. 8 the same is shown in enlarged view with the support and associated brush at lowering stage.

Finally, it should be noted that the manual operation of mechanisms 18 and 19 (FIG. 1) could be also rendered automatic by proper control expedients in timing relationship with brush feed and position. Thus, the extreme knee control or drive 23 could be replaced by an automatic drive.

In this specification, those parts comprising the essential features of the invention have been described, neglectingall the matter which is obvious and of ready understanding, as well as those associated and control parts which can be carried out in different forms and in the case changed for different requirements. Of

course, all of these would be within the covering scope of the present invention.

I claim:

1. A polishing machine for finished shoe soles, comprising:

an intermittently rotating dial-arranged support, each spoke of which comprises a pair of uprights carrying a shoe;

a pair of rotating brushes one of which is for abrading and one of which is for polishing and which are lowered and remain lowered during their angular rotation;

a system for rotating said brushes, first in opposition to the feeding direction of the shoe and then, when past the longitudinal axis of the shoe, in the same direction as the shoe;

a device for carrying each of said brushes and provided with means for the simultaneous rotation and lowering thereof;

a device for intermittently radially moving said dialarranged support and blocking it when in a loading or unloading position; and

a device for each brush for the distribution on one brush of abrasive material and on the other brush of polishing material.

2. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said dial-arranged support comprises:

a shaft passing through the bearing case, on which two identical discs comprising an inner disc and an external disc are keyed and additionally rendered fast by a plurality of equally spaced apart inner cross-pieces, each of which radially carries two uprights comprising as a whole the shoe support;

the heel upright comprising a member terminating with a peg and enclosed between two plates fast at the bottom with the cross-piece and anchored thereto by'a pin projecting on both sides of the plates and seating in one pair of a series of notches placed vertically so as to be able to regulate the height of the heel upright; said upright also being pivoted at the bottom to a stem of a cylinder in order to hold the shoe when this latter is in position; said cylinder which is pivoted on said crosspiece is connected with a push button valve mounted on the inner disc and meeting a cam releasing the shoe when said pair of uprights carrying the shoe reaches the station in order to change said shoe with another shoe to be processed; and

the toe upright comprises a toe rest bracket fast with a cylindrical rod entering a tubular element fast at the bottom with a member pivoted in a fork fast with said cross-piece, this cylindrical rod having some cross cut seatings, one of which may optionally receive a spring mounted nib so as to be able to change the height of said upright; it being possible to carry out an angular adjustment to the assembly by means of a pivoting point of the fork which is provided with a friction or clutch system in order to be able to adapt the device to different shoe lengths.

3. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said brushes is soaked with a material and particularly an abrasive material for the smoothing brush, and a polishing material for the polishing brush, this material comprising a parallelepiped cake held by a rod which is resiliently pivoted at the opposite end and can also be angularly moved by a handle or mechanical means, a slot being provided in the sheets which form the upper bearing casing for the passage of said cake in order to meet the brush, as well as a rocking lever which keeps it raised in a rest position which can be regulated by means of a screw so as to adjust it as the brush wears down.

4. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said brushes is supported by its shaft at the end of a plate oscillating on a fixed pivoting at the other end and operated by a pair of coaxial cylinders anchored by a threaded rod to the upper sheet of the bearing casing, said rod terminating with a handwheel and operated to control the position of the cylinders and brush to equalize the wear of the latter; one of said cylinders which acts as a brake and a shock absorber is also provided with a pair of limit nuts adjustable for the second cylinder; said threaded rod projecting from said upper sheet being restrained thereto by a threaded block of nylon or other equivalent selfblocking material.

5. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein said oscillating plate also carries a motor mounted on an oscillating board in order to rotate the brush shaft by a pulley keyed thereon.

6. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein a disc is keyed on the rear end of the dialarranged support shaft, having on its periphery a plurality of as many notches as the pairs of radial supports, a diametrical rocking lever being mounted idly on said support shaft which will engage a notch by means of the engaging cylinder, in turn said engaging cylinder being also pivoted to the end of the stem of a driving cylinder at a vertical stationary position, causing said engaging cylinder to angularly move the notched disc and front dial-arranged support, on another notch a blocking device being provided for stopping the disc at the correct arrival position when the diametrical rocking lever is clear of the notch to move back to the starting position.

7. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the diametrical rocking lever carrying the engaging cylinder moving the disc carries at the opposite end a pivoted rack rod meshing at the bottom with a gear hub, the shaft of which passes through a box and bears a number of cams operating respective microswitches for controlling the brush lowering on the soles and rotation in both directions of the brushes realizing the inversion of the rotation when the longitudinal plane of the shoe coincides with the diametrical plane of the brush. 

1. A polishing machine for finished shoe soles, comprising: an intermittently rotating dial-arranged support, each spoke of which comprises a pair of uprights carrying a shoe; a pair of rotating brushes one of which is for abrading and one of which is for polishing and which are lowered and remain lowered during their angular rotation; a system for rotating said brushes, first in opposition to the feeding direction of the shoe and then, when past the longitudinal axis oF the shoe, in the same direction as the shoe; a device for carrying each of said brushes and provided with means for the simultaneous rotation and lowering thereof; a device for intermittently radially moving said dial-arranged support and blocking it when in a loading or unloading position; and a device for each brush for the distribution on one brush of abrasive material and on the other brush of polishing material.
 2. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said dial-arranged support comprises: a shaft passing through the bearing case, on which two identical discs comprising an inner disc and an external disc are keyed and additionally rendered fast by a plurality of equally spaced apart inner cross-pieces, each of which radially carries two uprights comprising as a whole the shoe support; the heel upright comprising a member terminating with a peg and enclosed between two plates fast at the bottom with the cross-piece and anchored thereto by a pin projecting on both sides of the plates and seating in one pair of a series of notches placed vertically so as to be able to regulate the height of the heel upright; said upright also being pivoted at the bottom to a stem of a cylinder in order to hold the shoe when this latter is in position; said cylinder which is pivoted on said cross-piece is connected with a push button valve mounted on the inner disc and meeting a cam releasing the shoe when said pair of uprights carrying the shoe reaches the station in order to change said shoe with another shoe to be processed; and the toe upright comprises a toe rest bracket fast with a cylindrical rod entering a tubular element fast at the bottom with a member pivoted in a fork fast with said cross-piece, this cylindrical rod having some cross cut seatings, one of which may optionally receive a spring mounted nib so as to be able to change the height of said upright; it being possible to carry out an angular adjustment to the assembly by means of a pivoting point of the fork which is provided with a friction or clutch system in order to be able to adapt the device to different shoe lengths.
 3. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said brushes is soaked with a material and particularly an abrasive material for the smoothing brush, and a polishing material for the polishing brush, this material comprising a parallelepiped cake held by a rod which is resiliently pivoted at the opposite end and can also be angularly moved by a handle or mechanical means, a slot being provided in the sheets which form the upper bearing casing for the passage of said cake in order to meet the brush, as well as a rocking lever which keeps it raised in a rest position which can be regulated by means of a screw so as to adjust it as the brush wears down.
 4. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said brushes is supported by its shaft at the end of a plate oscillating on a fixed pivoting at the other end and operated by a pair of coaxial cylinders anchored by a threaded rod to the upper sheet of the bearing casing, said rod terminating with a handwheel and operated to control the position of the cylinders and brush to equalize the wear of the latter; one of said cylinders which acts as a brake and a shock absorber is also provided with a pair of limit nuts adjustable for the second cylinder; said threaded rod projecting from said upper sheet being restrained thereto by a threaded block of nylon or other equivalent self-blocking material.
 5. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein said oscillating plate also carries a motor mounted on an oscillating board in order to rotate the brush shaft by a pulley keyed thereon.
 6. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein a disc is keyed on the rear end of the dial-arranged support shaft, having on its periphery a plurality of as many notches as the pairs of radial supports, a diametrical rocking lever being mounted idly on said support shaft which will engaGe a notch by means of the engaging cylinder, in turn said engaging cylinder being also pivoted to the end of the stem of a driving cylinder at a vertical stationary position, causing said engaging cylinder to angularly move the notched disc and front dial-arranged support, on another notch a blocking device being provided for stopping the disc at the correct arrival position when the diametrical rocking lever is clear of the notch to move back to the starting position.
 7. A polishing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the diametrical rocking lever carrying the engaging cylinder moving the disc carries at the opposite end a pivoted rack rod meshing at the bottom with a gear hub, the shaft of which passes through a box and bears a number of cams operating respective microswitches for controlling the brush lowering on the soles and rotation in both directions of the brushes realizing the inversion of the rotation when the longitudinal plane of the shoe coincides with the diametrical plane of the brush. 